Moving reptiles?  Use our snake and lizard quarantine PCR panel to avoid spreading contagious agents.

Ruminating about hoofstock issues?  Try our ruminant fecal screening PCR panel - tests for most common GI pathogens in wild & domestic ruminants.

Our Rodent Infestation PCR Panel tests for 5 common pathogens found in rodent-contaminated facilities.

In over your head? Try our waterborne pathogens PCR panel - detection of 7 different environmental pathogens by real time PCR.

Something fishy going on in your tanks? Try our Zebrafish screening PCR panel - tests for 6 different pathogen categories from one easy-to-collect sample.

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Zoologix performs environmental, zoo, wildlife and aquatic PCR tests for...

Aeromonas hydrophila

African swine fever

Aleutian disease

Amphibian panel

Anisakis worms

Aspergillus

Babesia

Bacillus species

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

Baylisascaris procyonis

Borna virus

Borrelia burgdorferi

Camelpox

Campylobacter

Canine circovirus

Canine distemper

Canine parvovirus

Capillaria xenopodis

Chlamydia/
Chlamydophila

Chlamydophila pneumoniae

Chytrid fungus

Citrobacter freundii

Classical swine fever

Clostridium

Coccidia

Coccidioides

Coronaviruses

Coxiella burnetii

Cryptococcosis

Cryptosporidium

Cryptosporidium serpentis

Cryptosporidium varanii (formerly saurophilum)

Delftia acidovorans

E. coli O157:H7

E. coli panel

Edwardsiella

Encephalomyocarditis

Enterobacter cloacae

Enterovirus

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP)

Feline panleukopenia

Ferret respiratory enteric coronavirus

Francisella tularensis

Giardia

Hantavirus

Helicobacter

Hepatitis E

Herring worms

Histoplasma

Inclusion Body Disease (IBD)

Influenza type A

Influenza type B

Japanese encephalitis

Johne's disease

Kangaroo herpesviruses

Klebsiella

Lawsonia intracellularis

Legionella

Leishmania

Leptospira

Listeria monocytogenes

Lizard quarantine panel

Lyme disease

Macropodid (kangaroo) herpesviruses

Malaria

Mink enteritis virus

Monkeypox

Mycobacteria in mammals, amphibians and fish

Mycoplasma mustelae

Mycoplasma species

Neospora caninum

Nipah virus

Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola

Pasteurella multocida

Pentastomid worms

Plasmodium species

Porcine cytomegalovirus

Porcine lymphotropic herpesvirus

Porcine parvovirus

Pseudocapillaria tomentosa

Pseudocapillaroides xenopi

Pseudoloma neurophilia

Pseudorabies

Pseudoterranova worms

Q fever

Rabies

Raillietiella orientalis

Ranavirus

Reovirus screen

Reptarenavirus

Rickettsia

Rift Valley fever

Rotavirus

Salmonella

Sarcocystis neurona

Snake fungal disease

Snake quarantine panel

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

St. Louis encephalitis

Strep pneumoniae

Streptococcus pyogenes

Swine vesicular disease

Tongue worms

Toxoplasma gondii

Treponema pallidum

Trichomonas/
Tritrichomonas

Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma evansi

Tularemia

Turtle fraservirus

Vaccinia

Valley Fever

Vesicular stomatitis

Vibrio

West Nile virus

White nose syndrome

Yersinia enterocolitica

Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis


Monkeypox PCR test
wildlife and zoo assay data sheet

Monkeypox

Test code:
S0025 - Qualitative detection of monkeypox virus (MPV) by polymerase chain reaction

 

Monkeypox virus (MPV) is an orthopoxvirus that is genetically distinct from other members of the Poxviridae family, including the variola, vaccinia, ectromelia, camelpox, and cowpox viruses. It was first identified as the cause of a pox-like illness in captive monkeys at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen in 1958. Currently, MPV is regarded as the most important orthopoxvirus infection in human beings since the eradication of smallpox. By contrast with variola virus, however, MPV has a wide range of hosts, which has allowed it to maintain a reservoir in wild animals while sporadically causing human disease, and has precluded its global eradication by human vaccination.

Serological surveys suggest that many animals are infected with MPV under natural conditions, including squirrels, non-human primates, and rats. After 1997, human monkeypox attracted little attention worldwide until May, 2003, when the CDC received reports from the central USA of patients who developed fever and a rash after close contact with pet prairie dogs and other mammals. This outbreak, with a total of 81 identified cases (40% laboratory confirmed), was due to human monkeypox, a disease that had previously never been recorded in the western hemisphere. Traceback investigations identified an international shipment of about 800 small mammals from Ghana to Texas as the probable source for the introduction of MPV into the USA. Gambian giant rats from this shipment were transported from Texas via an Iowa animal vendor to a pet distributor in the Chicago area, where they were co- LOCATED with prairie dogs (Cynomus spp). Infected prairie dogs were subsequently transported from the distributor to a vendor in Wisconsin, where they were sold to the index patient and others. Infected prairie dogs, which through a non-linear chain of distribution may have also been sold at "swap meets" in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, have been implicated as the source of primary infection for most of the US cases.

Although virus isolation can be used to diagnose monkeypox virus infection, a long incubation period is required to obtain results. Viral culture also increases the potential risk of laboratory personnel contacting this virus. Furthermore, viral culture is less sensitive, reliable and specific than polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based techniques. Serological testing for MPVantigens is difficult because of the close antigenic relation between surface antigens among the orthopoxviruses. Various serological methods are available, including a virus-neutralising test with hyperimmune reference sera, a haemagglutination-inhibition assay with chicken erythrocytes, and detection of specific viral antibodies. The sensitivities of these tests vary (50–95%), however, and serological tests are not useful for the diagnosis of acute infection. Expert opinion is that no serological assay currently available can reliably diagnose orthopoxvirus infections with high sensitivity.

Monkeypox detection by PCR is the most rapid, sensitive and specific method for the diagnosis of this infection.

Utilities:

  • Help confirm the disease causing agent
  • Help ensure that animal groups and populations are free of MPV
  • Early prevention of spread of this virus among a population
  • Minimize human exposure to this virus

Specimen requirement: Lesion scab or vesicle fluid swab.

Contact Zoologix if advice is needed to determine an appropriate specimen type for a specific diagnostic application. For specimen types not listed here, please contact Zoologix to confirm specimen acceptability and shipping instructions.

For all specimen types, if there will be a delay in shipping, or during very warm weather, refrigerate specimens until shipped and ship with a cold pack unless more stringent shipping requirements are specified. Frozen specimens should be shipped so as to remain frozen in transit. See shipping instructions for more information.

Turnaround time: 2 business days

Methodologies: Qualitative PCR

Normal range: Nondetected

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